Dépends

Dépends is the second-person singular present indicative form of the French verb dépendre, meaning to depend or to rely on. It is used when the subject is you (tu), as in Tu dépends de tes amis dans ce projet. The form is also identical in spelling to the first-person singular form, which can appear in other contexts but with a different subject pronoun.

The verb dépendre comes from Latin dependere, literally de- + pendere, “to hang down” or by extension to rely on or to be contingent on something. In modern French, the core sense is still about dependence or conditionality, rather than physical hanging.

Conjugation basics include: je dépends, tu dépends, il dépend, nous dépendons, vous dépendez, ils dépendent. The third-person singular form is dépend, without the final s, which helps distinguish it from dépends in spoken conversation. The participle and related forms include dépendant (dependent) and dépendance (dependence).

Usage notes: dépends is typically paired with de to indicate what the subject depends on (dépendre de quelque chose). A common construction is ça dépend, meaning “it depends,” often used to express conditionality in a situation. While dépends appears in direct address to “you,” the more frequent standalone expression involves the third-person dépends and its related forms.

In summary, dépends is a key conjugated form of dépendre, central to expressing reliance or conditionality in French, with clear ties to related words like dépendance and dépendant.